Former Bedford care home to be transformed into supported living accommodation for vulnerable adults

Darrell Jeffreys House is being converted into 13 flats to provide accommodation for people with learning disabilities.

This comes after the former care home - in Chaucer Road - was sold to Empowered Homes.

Planning permission was restricted to providing care to those over 65 - but this has now been amended to those aged 18 and above.

Work is now under way to transform the building, with the flats anticipated to be available for use from April 2022.

Raymond Murphy, of Empowered Homes, said: “We’re passionate about helping vulnerable people have the best quality of life possible, enabling them to live in the community in good

accommodation.

“It’s fantastic to begin our first development in Bedford. It can be difficult to find suitable buildings, so we were very happy to work with Fisher German to purchase Darrell Jeffreys House and welcomed their support in achieving planning permission in relation to the use of the property.

“The local community has been very supportive of the plans and are pleased that the building will continue to provide care to those in Bedford. We now look forward to completing the renovation works and welcoming the first tenants.”

Mathew Brandon, of Fisher German, said: “It’s quite rare for properties like this to come on to the market in Bedford, so we understandably received a high volume of interest from care providers, residential developers and those who wanted to convert the building into a single dwelling.

“We were also pleased to use our multidisciplinary expertise to help ensure that Empowered Homes could obtain the correct planning permission to provide accommodation to those over the age of 18.”